The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has rescued over 180 children allegedly trafficked from five states across Nigeria by organized criminal groups posing as members of civil society organizations (CSOs).
The suspects misled parents in various communities, taking their children away under false pretences of educational support and back-to-school programmes.
The most recent rescue involved the recovery of three children allegedly trafficked from a distressed parent in Kajuru, Kaduna State, from a high-rise private building in a desirable area of Onitsha, Anambra State. Another child was found in the care of a clinical staff member at the Federal Medical Centre in Onitsha.
The development comes as the Director General of the Agency, Binta Adamu Bello, OON, raised concerns about the alarming activities of suspected trafficking syndicates that move from one crisis-ridden community to another, trafficking children under the guise of humanitarian aid.
Following a series of reported cases of missing children across the country, the DG established a Special Squad within the Investigation and Monitoring Department a few months ago. The squad was tasked with recovering allegedly trafficked children and bringing the traffickers to justice.
The first batch of recovered children consisted of those reportedly taken from various communities in Benue and Nasarawa States. These children were distributed to orphanages in Abuja and other states, where they were allegedly sold to unidentified individuals under the guise of adoption after substantial payments were made.
In his statement shortly before being reunited with his son, the father of one of the children (name withheld) commended NAPTIP for helping him recover his son.
“I am overwhelmed with joy because I had initially lost hope of seeing my son. It happened three years ago when some unknown gunmen invaded Kajuru, my community. We were all affected and displaced. A few weeks later, some people, some of whom were known to us, came around and, in an effort to console us, promised to take our children to the city for proper education. They said they run an NGO that helps people affected by one situation or another,” he said.
“I and some other parents were convinced, and since it has to do with the future of our children, we allowed them to take them away. We never knew that they deceived us. They tricked us and took our children away. A few months later, when it was obvious that the children ought to have returned and spent the holiday with us in the village, we approached them; rather than giving us the right answer, they further tricked us, and later we did not see them anymore.”
“This my son was three years old then, and now he is six years old. It is a mixture of joy and sadness for me because he looks very unkempt, unhappy, and it appears that he is being used as house help. On the other hand, I am happy that I am seeing him alive. How it happened was the pure act of God. I was directed to the Facebook page of NAPTIP where it was published that some children were recovered and their pictures were published. I saw my son among them and started chatting with NAPTIP only to find out that my son was indeed among them. I thank the Director General of NAPTIP and the gallant officers of the Agency for rescuing my son. This is just like a dream. I am happy,” the visibly excited father said.
In her statement, the nurse at the Federal Medical Centre, Onitsha, Anambra, who was found with one of the trafficked children, confessed that she got the child from a prominent orphanage (name withheld) located in Abuja in 2023 after paying the sum of ₦771,000.
Speaking on the situation, the Director General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, expressed worry over the activities of these organized criminal groups and called on the umbrella body of CSOs in Nigeria to carry out an in-house cleansing of the association.
“I am seriously disturbed by the activities of some persons masquerading as members of the Civil Society Organizations, who have been fingered in several issues of child trafficking from across the country,” she said.
“I am confident that we have very committed members of the Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria working in the humanitarian and counter-trafficking space. But it seems that they have been infiltrated by some criminal elements whose mission is to steal and traffic children for various forms of reasons.”
“From the various confessions of survivors and their relations as well as the investigation by NAPTIP, these criminal elements often use the platform of prominent and popular Civil Society Organizations to lure and deceive parents from security-challenged communities and villages, take away their children in the name of educational support, and disappear into thin air with the children. These children are later sold allegedly to the highest bidders. This is criminal, and it is a direct way of adding more sorrow to already traumatized families.”
“I want to challenge the umbrella body of the Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria, especially those working closely with us in the counter-trafficking space, to carry out in-house cleansing and expose those suspected to be criminal elements among them. They must be flushed out. On our own part, we have commenced a manhunt for those mentioned in our investigation, and we shall ensure that they are made to face the full wrath of the law,” the DG fumed.